


The Space Race

by AsterRoc



Series: The Space Race (fic and podfic) [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: #BuckyNat Week, F/M, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 23:23:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14031105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterRoc/pseuds/AsterRoc
Summary: Most people think that America won the Space Race when Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon.Some conspiracy theorists think the Space Race is yet to be won, that no one has yet stepped upon the surface of the Moon, and that Armstrong’s feats were performed on a soundstage filmed in slow motion.The truth of course is always stranger than fiction.





	The Space Race

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eustaciavye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/gifts).



> I was prompted by eustaciavye for #BuckyNat week with the following: 
> 
> “I didn't read the comic, but I know Natasha tells Bucky "We'll always have the moon." Go on, tell me a story about their time on the moon. (It doesn't have to mirror what was in the comic, since I haven't picked up the Samnee/Waid run yet...)” 
> 
> I haven’t read those comics either, but I did find the specific panels referenced.

Most people think that America won the Space Race when Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon. 

Some conspiracy theorists think the Space Race is yet to be won, that no one has yet stepped upon the surface of the Moon, and that Armstrong’s feats were performed on a soundstage filmed in slow motion. 

The truth of course is always stranger than fiction.

* * *

To the people who believe that the USA won the Space Race, the truth is that it didn’t look like they were going to win. The USSR sent the first satellite into space - the USSR’s Sputnik 1 in 1957 was trailed by the USA’s Explorer 1 in 1958. The USSR sent both the first and second men into both space and orbit (Yuri Gagarin in 1961, followed by German Titov the same year), while the USA’s first man in space (Alan Shepard in 1961) didn’t orbit a single time, and it took until 1962 for John Glenn to orbit. The first woman in space was also Russian - Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 - and the Americans didn’t send a woman up until Sally Ride two decades later. 

To most of the people who believe all this, the truth is that in 1969, the USA won the space race when Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the Moon followed by Buzz Aldrin, and supported by Mike Collins in orbit.

But, “the truth is a matter of circumstances. It's not all things to all people all the time, and neither am I.”

By the time Natasha Romanoff says these words to Steve Rogers, she knows the story of Neil Armstrong isn’t her truth. 

Natasha’s truth is that the first man on the Moon was a woman.

The first man on the Moon went by the name Valentina Tereshkova.

And Natasha remembers doing it.

* * *

Even at the time she knows she hasn’t always been Valentina Tereshkova. Tereshkova is a garment she has put on, a protective layer of clothing adopted to complete a job, much like the bulky spacesuit she has trained in. She thinks there was a real Tereshkova, though she doesn’t know if that woman still lives. 

She does not retain memories of her own life, nor those of Tereshkova, but they have given her both Tereshkova’s skills, and her own skills. After all, ballet and assassination can only make her a more agile copilot and a stronger spacewalker. Or at least she thinks those are her own skills. 

She remembers dancing on the surface of the Moon. The spacesuit does not flex as much as she needs, so she cannot stand _en pointe_ , but she can twirl and glide through the vacuum above the surface in a way she cannot on the ground, and in her head she slows the accompanying music to one-sixth of its usual speed to match the reduced gravity. 

When she returns to the orbiting command module, and she and her partner complete their checklist, they are allowed a sleep period of seven hours before leaving the orbit. They spend three of those hours making celebratory love in freefall. She remembers that sex in space is awkward and delightful, and nothing like what science fiction authors would have you believe. It is slow and tiring without a firm surface to push against, and so all lovemaking must be either smooth and gentle rocking inside one another for hours until the boundary blurs between orgasm and sleep, or else for exciting sex it must be all oral and manual. 

She knows this was her, she remembers, but she does not know who the man was. The name German Titov rings a bell, but whether because she trained with him or he was actually her pilot, she does not know. Besides, even if her pilot had the name Titov, that did not mean he actually _was_ Titov any more than she was Tereshkova.

* * *

Something is familiar about the Winter Soldier. The way he implacably stalks her down the street, rocket launcher on his shoulder. Too many dismiss her as not a threat, and he would be justified in his precautions had they only met that one time in Odessa, but there’s something off about it all. The way he anticipates her garotte, throws her off his back before she can grab a good hold, it’s uncanny. 

Natasha watches him fight Steve, brutal efficiency, neither of them pulling punches. Natasha knows she is tough in hand-to-hand, but they are powered, sped up nearly beyond what her eyes can follow, and even so she can almost predict the Winter Soldier’s moves. Steve feints left and the Soldier punches right exactly where she expected. The knife catches in the metal of the door, and Natasha knows he’s going to pull it, swap hands, and flip it to underhand, and he does exactly that. 

Natasha starts to wonder.

* * *

It isn’t until a few years later that she puts it all together. Natasha and the rehabilitated former Winter Soldier, now White Wolf, sometimes James Barnes, are together on a mission that involves the two of them airdropping from a helicarrier six miles up. They step off the launch platform together. They streamline their bodies as they plummet head-first. Natasha turns to look at Bucky, and his eyes are bright and his grin wide. He reaches his hand towards her slightly, his left hand, and his descent slows incrementally. She reaches out to him to keep pace, and when she comes alongside him again she grasps his still outstretched hand.

The way he pulls her into him with the grip is familiar. He twists his wrist and she rotates into his arms just the way she remembers. Head down, she brings her other hand up and clasps it around the back of his helmet the way she always did in zero g. She can’t kiss him, their faces are covered with the airtight polycarbonate necessary to protect them in the thin air, but she presses the faceplate of her helmet against his, and her lips to the clear plastic, and he mirrors her motions inside his helmet. They do not wrap their legs around each other, it would slow their descent too much to be compatible with their missions, and their mission always comes first. 

Natasha, Natalia, Tereshkova, Valentina pulls back enough that she can make eye contact with her lover. Bucky, James, Barnes, Titov pulls back as well, a slightly sad look on his face. They do not have the time they want to show their feelings, at least not today they don’t. Today, right now, their mission comes first. But after this mission, or after the next one, or maybe the one after it, the time will come when they will have a brief respite, maybe only a sleep period’s worth, but then they will reconnect as they always inevitably do, no matter who they are, no matter who is in their heads. 

This is what the Moon means to them: the Moon will always be there, like their love for each other. It may wax and wane, but it will always return, as they will always return to each other.

**Author's Note:**

> The following songs inspired me while composing this in my head and then writing it down.
> 
>   * [Imagine Dragons - On Top of the World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5tWYmIOWGk)
>   * [Buzz Aldrin - Rocket Experience](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRI6BghJ1PU)
>   * [The Nutcracker Suite - March](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXu5E3LnD3A&index=2&list=PL6F0B53B899A8EF69)
>   * [REM - Man in the Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxpNiF0YKs)
>   * [Midnight Oil - Golden Age](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SHwJybAWo)
> 

> 
> Much thanks to eustaciavye for the prompt! I’d been having fanfic writer’s block for literal years. :-D

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Space Race](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14992634) by [AsterRoc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterRoc/pseuds/AsterRoc)




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